Coronavirus update: How NBA, MLB, NHL will restart after pandemic | When will teams go back to work?

Updated Mar 23, 2020; Posted Mar 23, 2020

A closed sign is displayed on the Pittsburgh Pirates spring training baseball gift shop at LECOM Park, Monday, March 16, 2020, in Bradenton, Fla. Major League Baseball has delayed the start of its season by at least two weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak and suspended the rest of its spring training schedule. AP

At some point, however, life will begin to return to normal and sports will be ready to resume their seasons. So what will that look like?

NBA

The Boston Globe reports "NBA players aren’t allowed to practice or enter the team’s practice facilities during the quarantine, and have been advised not to leave their NBA cities, meaning there will likely be some very rusty players when, or if, the season resumes. The NBA is going to have to give teams at least a week of practice before playing again. And it’s pretty apparent the NBA will have to wipe out the rest of the regular season unless the league wants to push the season back to August … "

NHL

TSN reports (via the Boston Globe) that “players were discussing the idea of a training camp that begins in early July, with the end of the 2019-20 season later that month, followed by playoffs in August and September, a shortened offseason, draft and free agency in October, and the beginning of a full 82-game schedule in November.”

MLB

The Boston Globe reports that Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said the club is “operating under the premise that teams will have three or four weeks of what amounts to a second spring training before the season starts. Presumably teams will return to Florida and Arizona. But in talking to officials from Major League Baseball, no decisions have been reached about what type of schedule teams will play or whether fans will be allowed into ballparks.”

Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro said Sunday that “knowing that so many players are not even having any access to throwing at all or hitting at all, but most importantly just throwing, and probably limited access to just training and exercise, it’s hard to imagine we could get ready in less than four weeks. ... It certainly looks like we are not dealing with days and likely not weeks, but closer to months,” he said, according to ESPN.

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